Terapeutyczne doświadczenie Boga w duchowości prawosławnej

Abstract

Contemporary man, discouraged by the various problems, passions, frustrations, fears, and even despair, which torment him, is looking for a cure for himself. It is very significant that he tries to acquire the absolute freedom, but experiences that it is above his abilities. Many Christians suffer malady, which distorts their relationship with God, his fellow men and even nature. They are in need of a therapeutic treatment in order to cure them from different kind of illness, as well bodily, as spiritual. From the very beginning of the monastic life in the Eastern Christianity there was stressed a very close connection between the condition of human being and his salvation. The neptic Fathers combined anthropological views of Greek philosophers and thinkers with the wisdom of the Bible. That creative synthesis was very helpful in the practice of many Christians who wanted to experience God as the Healer of the soul, spirit and body. First part of the article shows Orthodox theology as the therapeutic science. Christianity is not a philosophy in the sense that prevails today. Christianity is the revelation of God Himself to man, and therefore it cannot be contained within the usual conceptions and notions given in the “natural” religion. Deification of human nature in Christ has opened the way towards salvation for a man. Deification should be understood as identical with “likeness”, that is, to be like God. However, in order to reach the likeness, man’s purification must previously have taken place. This purification and healing is the Church’s work, because the Church is the hospital in which every sick and distressed person can be cured. Theology therefore should be the existential experience of God. Such attitude towards theology can be found in the patristic tradition, which is neither a social philosophy nor an ethical system, nor is it religious dogmatism, but it is a therapeutic treatment. Theologian, in the full sense of this word, it is somebody who is healed, who acquired internal stillness and dispassion, and remain in the presence of God in the state of unceasing prayer. Second part of the article depicts Orthodox spirituality as the therapeutic praxis. The spiritual life of human being is based on the following assumptions: 1. His creation “in the image and likeness of God”, 2. his renewal in Christ and the deification of human nature, and 3. the possibility for him to become a participant in Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual life, which is a very dynamic process, makes possible the transformation of passions (Gr. pathi) characteristic for the condition of human nature and gaining of virtues in order to be bestowed by God the grace of deification. It would be impossible to look for a way leading towards the therapeutic experience of God without the good knowledge of sources of the man’s sickness. The roots of sins come out of evil thoughts (Gr. logismoi). Sins become passions. The basic passion from which all the passions originate is self-love (Gr. philautia). There are eight general categories of thoughts and passions: gluttony, impurity, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory, and pride. The final cause of all passions if the personal evil, namely the Demon, who acts by them. Healing of human nature from passions is only possible by Christ. By His Incarnation, Christ has overthrown the barrier that separated our nature from God and has opened that nature once more to the deifying energies of uncreated grace. The therapeutic process practiced in Eastern Christianity has got its purpose in helping a man to get healing in all spheres of his life. The whole human being with his body, soul, and spirit submits God on the level of sacramental life in the Church, as well as in his individual life of prayer and asceticism. As necessary conditions of healing in the Orthodox Church there are four main ways of cure: Orthodox faith, being aware of our illness, the presence of the Orthodox therapist-priest, and the Orthodox therapeutic method. When a man enters the state of dispassion (Gr. apatheia) then we can say that he was healed. But the healing of a human being never will be fully finished, because on the other side of life, it will be endlessly continued the process of transformation him into the image of God, and constant reflecting in brighter and brighter glory.